A high-speed network environment typically includes network devices such as routers and switches used for facilitating delivery of information packets and/or data traffic from source devices to destination devices via communication networks such as IP and/or packet-based networks. Information pertaining to the transfer of data packet(s) and/or frame(s) through the network(s) is usually embedded within the packet and/or frame itself. Each packet, for instance, traveling through multiple nodes via one or more communication networks such as Internet and/or Ethernet can typically be handled independently from other packets in a packet stream or traffic. Each node which may include routing, switching, and/or bridging engines processes incoming packet(s) or frame(s) and determines where the packet(s) or frame(s) should be forwarded.
A typical modern communications network usually includes various network devices such as network elements (“NEs”) as well as Network Management systems (“NMSs”). An NE, for instance, is a managed logical entity including one or more physical devices. An NMS, on the other hand, is a managing logic entity capable of managing one or more NEs via a network management protocol, for example SNMP.
Today's NEs can be complex wherein each NE involves and processes larger volume of information such as massive configuration/statistics related data. For example, a conventional NE is able to transfer and process voluminous management information between NE(s) and NMS(s). A traditional approach for transferring management information between an NE and an NMS is to use predefined value for the maximum packet size that is exchanged between the entities. A problem associated with the traditional approach is that transferring management information using a predefined maximum packet size may not take advantage of the underlying link capacity to the fullest extent thereby resulting in a large number of request-response transactions. However, predefining a large value for packet size to use maximum link capacity may result in fragmentation if the link capacity goes down and can cause communication problems. High volume of request-response management transactions can slow down and/or clog network management traffic, and consequently, degrade overall network performance.